Artist love Cape Ann's shores and harbors

Artists have long held that the light on Cape Ann is perfect for artists. That and the evocative beauty of the sea attracted painters both famous and obscure to the area in the past and continues to do so today.

In fact, 19th-century illuminist painter Fitz Hugh Lane, whose use of sunlight in huge seascapes and marines was easily the best of the period, was a native son.

The largest collection of Lane's work is not at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston _ where a good number have been displayed _ but at the Cape Ann Historical Association on Pleasant Street, not far from Lane's birthplace or final resting place.

And Winslow Homer came here for the chance to be surrounded by the ocean he so passionately painted here and in other ports.

In 1880, Homer boarded with the keeper of the lighthouse at Ten Pound Island and painted 50 of his finest watercolors of the encircling harbor.

Twentieth-century master realist Edward Hooper came to Gloucester's Portuguese Hill, where he painted a row of houses.

The artistic tradition is carried on today.

Impressionist Aldo Hibbard, William Paxton, Frederick Mulhaupt, Edmund Tarbell and Frank Benson were among the founders of the North Shore Art Association in 1922.

The North Shore Arts Association's gallery, located on Pirate's Lane near East Gloucester Square (283-1857), is open to the public. Among the summer's offerings are art demonstrations, exhibits, weekly sketch group and figure classes, art fairs and auctions.

Seven decades after its founding, the Rockport Art Association (RAA) today has a membership of almost 300 artists _ including photographers.

There is no charge for admission to the Rockport Art Association gallery at 12 Main St., Rockport (546-6604), which features continuous exhibitions of paintings, graphics and sculpture.

During the summer, the RAA also puts on demonstrations, adult and children workshops, lectures, musical events, square dancing and films.

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